As Stéphane Dion and Pierre Trudeau before him have said, I have no personal problem with calling Québec a «nation» in a sociological context, but it's when certain politicians ask for constitutional recognition of that where I draw the line. No francophone needs the Canadian constitution to recognise his «distinctness» to protect him. It is power-seeking politicians who need this, so that they can have more power to decide where the money goes when it comes from Ottawa. Québec is a distinct society, I can handle that, but I also maintain that Newfoundland is just as distinct. In fact, each province has its own cultural particularities when compared to the others and to the states below. Québec just happens to be the only majority francophone province... big deal. I agree that French should be promoted and protected in Québec, but I also want that for the rest of Canada. As for Québec «culture», if you take the language difference out of the equation, it's not much different from other Canadian provinces. The music is the same as folk music from other parts of Canada, it's just sung in a different language. The list goes on.
Québec doesn't just belong to the francophones who live here. It also belongs to the anglophones and aboriginals who live here as well, and the allophones who have become residents and citizens. And it also belongs to Canada. And like Dion said in his open letter to Lucien Bouchard some years ago, there is no article of international law that recognises Québec's territory, but does not recognise Canada's.
It's time for Bloquistes and Péquistes to grow up and accept and embrace that they are Canadians too, who are totally free and equal under the law to any other Canadian. Canada has worked hard to become a bilingual state, which means that if any francophone Canadian is stuck somewhere (like say, Lebanon) he or she WILL be assisted by Canadian consular services in French. That when a law is written and passed int his country, it will be published in French as well as English. And the list goes on.
I wish this question would just die. It is a waste of our time as a country. Québec is not a nation, and it will never separate from Canada.